So, you like Game of Thrones?

Maybe you just got into Fantasy. Maybe you succumbed to the hype and watched Game of Thrones on HBO, then decided to read the George R.R. Martin (GRRM) books. Congratulations! However, you’re probably now in a quandary, since you have discovered that you actually like this stuff, but you have no idea where to find more of it. In that case, you’ve come to the right place.

Yes, I know there are other lists out there. Like this one. But that one sucks. I’ve read 80% of the books on that list and, while a few of them very clearly influenced GRRM, most of them are nothing at all like A Song of Ice and Fire.

As someone who’s been reading Fantasy since the 1980’s, I find it fairly gratifying that a somewhat significant slice of popular culture has at last come around to the proverbial Dark Side. On the other hand, it’s a bit annoying to me on multiple levels.

First, because you people have no goddamn idea how good you have it. Fantasy these days is so good. I would put the best Fantasy authors of 2014 up against the best fiction authors of any other genre in a heartbeat. That certainly wasn’t so 25 years ago. Yeah, there was always Tolkien. And there were certain other creations of brilliance (Earthsea, Melnibone, etc.) but for the most part reading the best Fantasy back then was equal parts wonder at the author’s world-building and frustration at his (or her) limited character development and simple archetypes. You know the story.

A young boy grows up in a remote somewhere. A Stranger comes unannounced on day, telling him know go on a Quest to perform something. If he doesn’t do this, the great evil Thingamajig will destroy the world as he knows it. Our young Hero stumbles out on his quest, losing his way many times, but eventually triumphing over Evil, and maturing much in the process.

That type of Fantasy has its uses, but Light vs Dark/Pure Good vs True Evil doesn’t resonate with most of us, because we understand that real life is far more nuanced. Call it a simpler worldview for a simpler time, if you will; Tolkien, after all, used World War One as one of his primary influences when writing The Lord of the Rings.

Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea quartet. David Eddings’ Belgariad. Terry Brooks’ Shannara trilogy. Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman’s Dragonlance series., Raymond Feist’s Riftwar saga. R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf trilogy. Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Janny Wurts’ Cycle of Fire trilogy…I could go on and on. These Fantasy entries from the 80’s and 90’s were all very similar in basic plot—see above. Hell, even Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time started out in such a fashion (the first book was published in 1990) before evolving into something much more along the course of 14 volumes and 23 years.

But all that has changed. Fantasy today is more cynical, nuanced, gritty, brutal, darker and in all ways more real; at least by the standards of the world we live in. You can certainly thank GRRM for that. No, he wasn’t the first to pen Fantasy in such a fashion, but he was the first to pen Epic Fantasy in such a fashion—at least to mass-market success.

It takes a certain kind of person to like GRRM’s books. You have to like long, involved, complicated, epic (the true definition of “epic”) narratives. So, if you’re that person—the kind of person that thinks 500 pages is a “light read”—then the following list is for you. I’ve listed these alphabetically by author, so as not to attempt to “list” or “rank” them, although it’s very obvious that one series stands out as my clear favorite. Enjoy!

The First Law Trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie. Not nearly as complicated as GRRMs work, but still an excellent foray into modern Fantasy, with realistic and multifaceted characters and a plotline that is equal parts gritty, brutal and humorous.

The Prince of Nothing, by R. Scott Bakker. Dark, dark, dark. I didn’t think it was possible to enjoy a story this much while not liking any of the protagonists. Bakker’s protagonists are flawed, imperfect and believably villainous; yes, those are the “good guys.”  His antagonists, however, are Eeevilllll (like the fru-its of the Devilll). There’s a lot of pain, misery, and damnation to go around in this tale. Did I mention that this shit is intricate and complex? It is. Think GRRM. The first half of the first book is slow going, whilst you familiarize yourself with the world of Earwa. But the payoff is well worth it.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson. Quite simply, the Malazan Book of the Fallen (MBotF) is the greatest thing I have ever read in my entire life, and I believe Erikson is not only the greatest Fantasy writer, but the greatest writer of fiction—any fiction—on earth. 10 volumes and 9000+ pages spanning multiple worlds and over 100,000 years. Hundreds of POV characters. Thousands of different dramatis personae. Reading this series is work. In addition to the complexity, volume one is a bit disjointed and of a noticeably lower quality than the rest of the series, and it isn’t until halfway through the third book that we start to get a sense  of the Big Picture. But they payoff—for what at times might feel slogging through and struggling to make sense—is just sooo worth it. Oh, and make sure you have some Kleenex handy. You may or may not ball like a little bitch at times whilst reading this.  

The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan. This one really shouldn’t need an introduction. This is the 800-pound gorilla of Fantasy, the Epic saga by which all other levels of Epic-ness are judged. No, really. 14 volumes. Around 13,000 pages. Hundreds of different POV characters. Super quick TL;DR synopsis: books 1-6 are outstanding. From there the series starts to drag from books 7-11. 12-14 are fantastic, and remind you why you started reading in the first place. If you need something long and complicated to hold your interest, this is your huckleberry.

The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss. The books are absolutely wonderful. The only legitimate gripe I have is that—much like GRRM—Rothfuss is a slow writer.  The Name of the Wind was released in 2007, with a The Wise Man’s Fear following in 2011, and that’s all we have so far. Doors of Stone is currently slated for an August 2015 release.

The Stormlight Archives, by Brandon Sanderson. By the time this is done, it might even surpass Erikson’s MBotF as the greatest Fantasy series ever. It’s certainly right up there. Only two volumes down so far, but that’s over 2000 pages. Luckily, Sanderson is a fast writer (this is the guy that was hand-picked by Robert Jordan to finish off the Wheel of Time series after Jordan’s death) so we should be able to expect a new volume every 18-24 months or so for the next decade.

The Lightbringer Series, by Brent Weeks. This one starts out as typical “high fantasy” (young hero, quest, etc. See above.) but gets murky and awesome almost immediately after that. There have only been two books released so far (volume 3 hits the shelves in August of 2014) but the story has been exceptional so far.